How to Create a Successful Nonprofit Marketing Plan

Thursday, 29 March 2018 09:00:00 Australia/Sydney

In an average year, Australians give over 12 million dollars to charitable and not-for-profit organizations. If you want that money coming to your organization, you will need a strong marketing plan.

When people think of marketing, they often think of the work a for-profit company does to drive sales from their customers. But marketing isn't just for businesses.

In fact, it's essential for nonprofits to market their programs. A nonprofit marketing plan helps nonprofits attract donors, build a volunteer base, and create the capacity they need to make their message known and drive change.

What is a Marketing Plan?

First, it's important to understand what a marketing plan looks like. A good marketing plan should outline the goals of your marketing campaign, and the activities you plan to take to reach that goal. You plan should also detail your budget and the tools you will need to be successful.

Setting Goals

First, you will need to set a goal for your nonprofit. This will help you evaluate whether your plan is successful and whether you need to make adjustments.

Nonprofits typically have several types of goals:

Increasing donors/funds

Engaging the community

Raising awareness

Establishing authority

While all of these goals are important, it is difficult for any marketing campaign to address them all at once. To be successful, you should focus on one of these items, and set a specific goal.

For instance, if you want to increase funds, set a specific dollar amount, or a specific number of new donors you want to recruit. Always make sure your goals are ambitious but attainable.

Choose Communication Channels

There are multiple communication channels available to nonprofits. The ones you choose should be dependent on your target audience.

For instance, many nonprofits assume that social media is the most effective way to communicate. For some organizations, this may be the case. For other audiences, though, there may be better channels.

For many audiences, emails are a better method of communication than social media. In fact, emails can typically get six times as many click-throughs as a single tweet.

So, while a social media campaign can be an important component of your marketing campaign, it should not be the only one. Email and even snail mail can be much more likely to drive results.

Measure Your Impact

No marketing plan is complete without a plan for measuring its effectiveness. In your plan, outline what metrics you will use to determine whether you are reaching your goals.

For instance, will you use a tool like Google Analytics to track where new donors are coming from? Or will you ask new donors to share where they learned about your nonprofit?

Make Your Nonprofit Marketing Plan Today

With these steps in hand, you will soon be on your way to creating a successful nonprofit marketing plan. With this plan, you will be able to lead your organization on the path to making a bigger impact.